Engagement/Motivation

"Engagement is the product of motivation and active learning.  It is a product rather than a sum because it will not occur if either is missing.   

                                    - Elizabeth Barkley

Student engagement/motivation is the holy grail of education.  Those educators that have found it seem to have abilities that border on superpowers.  Those that haven't reached that level are completely confounded on how to get there.

The most common battle cry to increase student engagement is make it "real world!"  They will often make some sort of comment about how they make the problem or lesson about cell phones or some other superficial topic to get kids interested.  Inevitably, teacher frustration kicks in when there is no real change in student engagement.  This approach will eliminate the classic question, "When will I ever use this?" but it doesn't change the fact that the question/lesson/activity was still boring.  I really hate the term "real."  It is extremely subjective.  What is real to a 47 year old, college educated, white male, and what is real to his students often don't correlate.

Contrary to popular belief, I have not always been an administrator.  Two-thirds of my 24 year career was spent as a classroom teacher.  I was extremely fortunate at the beginning of my career to have my classroom next door to a veteran teacher who was a master at student engagement.  He taught Chemistry and I taught Physical Science.  He took an immediate interest in me because he saw me as the "farm system" for his Chemistry classes. What I noticed almost immediately was that his upper level Chemistry and Physics classes were ALWAYS full.  Thirty kids each and every class period. There would be a couple of times a year where he would have lab on Saturday because the school day didn't give them enough time, and the kids would not only show up, they looked forward to it.  

When I asked him how he makes his students WANT to be in his class, he looked at me puzzled.  "Nothing really. I don't waste their time and I give them something worth doing."  At the time, I didn't really understand what he meant.  After watching him interact with students and how he planned his day, I began to understand.  In subsequent conversations he told me, " Pose incomplete questions.  Have students help you fill in the gaps and formulate a question that they not only WANT answered, but they NEED answered.  They'll be motivated by the need for resolution.", he said.  

Nothing in his answer mentioned "real world" or "practical".  While his work may have been both of those things, they are not selling points for students.  Engagement comes when you become intrigued.  The secret to that is all in how you pose the question/problem.  No one EVER had the best brought out of them because of a worksheet.

For example, below is a link to a third grade math lesson regarding operations and algebraic thinking.

Bucky the Badger/

The first video is one minute in length and provides just enough information to get the students curious.  Inevitably a student will ask how many push ups did he do?  Once that happens, the students are engaged.  They WANT to know the answer.  It doesn't matter if this is "real" or if they will ever have to calculate push  ups in "real life."  They will be engaged because the problem is presented in an engaging way.  

1. - Set the stage with a scenario and limited information.

2. - Get the students to ask a question (provide guidance if needed).

3. - Have them guess an answer with this incomplete information. (Science - Form a hypothesis)

4. - Ask them what information they need to find the answer. (Have them justify why the information they are requesting is important - can be used as a writing prompt to foster literacy skills)

5. - Guide them through their work.

6. - Provide the real answer and facilitate a discussion.

7. - Extend the learning with additional questions.

Motivation and engagement are complicated, but how we set the stage in our classrooms is 90% of the battle.  In a previous blog I wrote about selling the problem, not the solution.  Student engagement is about selling the problem.  I have heard teachers use the old saying "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."  This is often said to place the blame for a student's failure to perform solely on the student.  I think it shows a flawed understanding of our role as educators.  It is not our job to make them drink.  It is our job to lead them to the water, slap some salt in their mouth, and make sure they are thirsty when they get there.